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Thu, 08 Dec 2016 14:00:28 +0000en-UShourly1Samsung Gear VR – Analyse A Real PPC Campaignhttp://ppc.org/samsung-gear-vr-analyse-a-real-ppc-campaign/
http://ppc.org/samsung-gear-vr-analyse-a-real-ppc-campaign/#commentsThu, 08 Dec 2016 14:00:28 +0000http://ppc.org/?p=16083The last PPC campaign I analysed in the ‘Analyse A Real PPC Campaign’ series came from Plus500, who had a good search advert on the whole but lacked a landing page with a clear objective (the button to click onto on the click through page was not as attention seeking and best located as it could have been). With virtual reality seemingly going to be the ‘next big thing’ for the video game industry, I thought it would be a good idea to analyse a campaign from this new emerging market. Therefore, without further ado, here is an analysis of a PPC campaign by Samsung advertising their Gear VR. To view Samsung’s PPC search advert, I had to type into Google search UK, ‘buy virtual reality headset': Straight away, this is going to be tough competition for Samsung that are promoting their premium virtual reality headset – Google shopping ...

]]>The last PPC campaign I analysed in the ‘Analyse A Real PPC Campaign’ series came from Plus500, who had a good search advert on the whole but lacked a landing page with a clear objective (the button to click onto on the click through page was not as attention seeking and best located as it could have been). With virtual reality seemingly going to be the ‘next big thing’ for the video game industry, I thought it would be a good idea to analyse a campaign from this new emerging market. Therefore, without further ado, here is an analysis of a PPC campaign by Samsung advertising their Gear VR.

Straight away, this is going to be tough competition for Samsung that are promoting their premium virtual reality headset – Google shopping is littered with virtual reality headsets which enable people to turn their smartphones into a VR headset – Gear VR is the same as this but done, well, better. Web users are price sensitive so Samsung will have to wow web users in order to win them over the higher priced Gear VR.

Looking at the advert itself, it is a great advert that is deliberately vague to arouse the interest of the web user into clicking onto the advert. The lack of ad extensions supports this with the description simply stating that the web user would enjoy it thoroughly.

The title is also very good, clearly addressing what the web user searched and also mentions two brand names which are likely to get the attention of those web users that are interested in virtual reality: Oculus and Samsung. Put together, it is another reason by itself to click onto the advert.

The only downside to this advert, though, is the location of it. From ranking lowest of paid search results, Samsung should not expect to get as good as a click through rate as they would have got if they were ranked number one for paid search results.

After clicking on the above advert, I came to the following landing page:

It clear straight away from landing onto this page that this is a product page, with the aim of promoting the Samsung Gear VR as well as giving the web user the option to purchase it too. The landing page has the following points associated to it:

There is a share button which will help get web users to promote the page socially, gaining extra traffic for free.

The page is clean and has a slideshow for the VR headset – it is simple enough that the web user should inherently know that to get more information about this, they will need to scroll down the page, which does show more information.

The page has a floating menu which contains features, tech specs, reviews, support, more and a button to add the Gear VR to the web user’s basket. This is great since it allows a conversion to take place (being a purchase) no matter how far up or down the web user is scrolled on the landing page.

]]>http://ppc.org/samsung-gear-vr-analyse-a-real-ppc-campaign/feed/0SSL Certificates for Websites – Do You Need One?http://ppc.org/ssl-certificates-for-websites-do-you-need-one/
http://ppc.org/ssl-certificates-for-websites-do-you-need-one/#commentsWed, 07 Dec 2016 14:00:39 +0000http://ppc.org/?p=16080Every website owner is constantly making sure they have configured and given their website everything to succeed online. However, have you given your website an SSL certificate? For the majority of bloggers and website owners out there, they either are unsure what the SSL certificate does or have chosen not to have one on their website. For this reason, I thought it would be a good idea to give you a little insight as to whether your website needs an SSL certificate or not. An SSL certificate is a way of encrypting websites online to make it safer for web users to browse on. With an SSL certificate on a website (shown as https:// rather than http://), data that is sent to and from the hosting server and the web user is secure. For this reason, you will find that pretty much all websites that require web users to fill ...

]]>Every website owner is constantly making sure they have configured and given their website everything to succeed online. However, have you given your website an SSL certificate? For the majority of bloggers and website owners out there, they either are unsure what the SSL certificate does or have chosen not to have one on their website. For this reason, I thought it would be a good idea to give you a little insight as to whether your website needs an SSL certificate or not.

An SSL certificate is a way of encrypting websites online to make it safer for web users to browse on. With an SSL certificate on a website (shown as https:// rather than http://), data that is sent to and from the hosting server and the web user is secure. For this reason, you will find that pretty much all websites that require web users to fill in details about themselves, such as bank details for buying goods, email addresses or their postal address, will use an SSL certificate.

This does not straight away mean that if you are not capturing leads from web users that you do not need an SSL certificate. Google have in fact stated that they are putting more emphasis as time progresses with using SSL certificates as a ranking factor for ranking websites on their search engine. The reason Google have done this is because they believe that a world where every website is https encrypted will result in a better and safer user experience for web users online. They call this move to https ‘HTTPS everywhere’.

This was released in 2014 (yes, that was two years ago). But, the point to make with this is that Google are constantly giving https more weight every year with regards to having an impact to the search engine rankings of a website. Therefore, you shall see https become more important in 2017 with regards to SEO.

As well as this, people trust and like websites that present themselves with ‘https://’ rather than ‘http://’ – although it is most likely subliminal, the ‘s’ really does make a difference with regards to how a web user interacts with a website.

The main drawback to adopting an SSL certificate, though, is the cost of purchasing one. For example, on one of my websites, I pay $50/year for an SSL certificate to make my website https. However, have I noticed any real meaningful difference? Well, no. But, I know I will be future proofing my website for any algorithm updates Google may present us in the future.

Therefore, should you purchase one or not? I think it has to depend how mature and old your website is. For example, if you are just starting up a website, I think getting an SSL certificate can wait. However, if your website has been successfully running for quite some time now, at least a year or two, it might be a good idea to give your website a SEO boost and security boost through SSL certification.

]]>http://ppc.org/ssl-certificates-for-websites-do-you-need-one/feed/05 AdWords Reports You Should Always Monitorhttp://ppc.org/5-adwords-reports-you-should-always-monitor/
http://ppc.org/5-adwords-reports-you-should-always-monitor/#commentsWed, 07 Dec 2016 12:45:57 +0000http://ppc.org/?p=16040Written by David Chapman Monitoring your AdWords campaigns is really important because it tells you whether each campaign is meeting your goals or not. It also gives you opportunities for improvement. Many advertisers just spend their time looking into basic metrics that they get by default in their campaigns. But there are more reports that you can use to view useful insights, helping you optimize your campaigns. Below is the list of 5 important AdWords reports that you should always monitor: Auction Insights Report: The Auction Insights report shows you what percentage of impression share you get and how often you show up on top results compared to your competitors. You can also review the sites that show up along with your ads for your keywords. This gives you an idea of how much more you can improve to get more impression shares. For example, if you have 50% impressions ...

Monitoring your AdWords campaigns is really important because it tells you whether each campaign is meeting your goals or not. It also gives you opportunities for improvement. Many advertisers just spend their time looking into basic metrics that they get by default in their campaigns. But there are more reports that you can use to view useful insights, helping you optimize your campaigns.

Below is the list of 5 important AdWords reports that you should always monitor:

Auction Insights Report:

The Auction Insights report shows you what percentage of impression share you get and how often you show up on top results compared to your competitors. You can also review the sites that show up along with your ads for your keywords. This gives you an idea of how much more you can improve to get more impression shares.

For example, if you have 50% impressions share, you can take it to 70% or 80% by figuring out whether it’s a problem about the budget, the bid, or other factors.

You can access this report at the keyword tab by clicking on ‘details’,going to Auction Insights, the choosing ‘All’.

Search Query Report:

This is a very important report that shows you what actual search terms are used when yourad shows up. You may have the keyword ‘accident lawyer’ as a broad match or a phrase match, and there is a chance this keyword would show up for ‘car accident lawyer’, ‘accident attorney’, or ‘car accident lawsuit’.This is why monitoring the search query report is very important.

It also gives you the opportunity to find new keywords that are currently not in your keywords list. This is also a great way for you to find negative keywords so your ads do not show up when these are typed in.

Competitive Metrics:

These are very useful hidden columns that are not visible in your campaigns by default. You can add them by going to the columns option and then clicking on ‘Modify columns’.

Search Impr. Share:

This tells you the percentage of impressions you have received for your ads compared to your competitors. The closer you are to 100%, the more impressions you receive. However, if you get less than 50% or any number close to it, then this shows you are missing out on a large number of impressions.

Search Exact Match IS:

This is the same as the Search Imp. Share metrics. The only difference is it only focuses on exact match keywords.

Search Lost IS (Rank):

This tells you the percentage of impressionsyou missed due to low ad rank. If you see a higher percentage, then you should consider increasing your bid to increase your ad rank. You can also work on improving the quality score of your keywords.

Search Lost IS (Budget):

This tells you the percentage of impressions you missed due to your budget. If you see a higher percentage, then you have to increase your budget. Remember if you run out of budget too quickly, your ads will stop serving.

Display Impr. Share:

This is the same as Search Impr. Share, but it focuses on display network impressions instead of search network impressions.

Display Lost IS (rank):

This is the same as Search Lost IS (rank) but it only focuses on the display network instead of the search network.

Display Lost IS (budget):

This is same as Search Lost IS (budget) but it just focuses on the display network instead of the search network.

Relative CTR:

This very useful column tells you how your ad performs compared to other ads running on the same page on the Google Display Network. The higher the number, the better your ads are performing compared to other ads.

Location Reports:

Finding out and monitoring where you are receiving clicks and conversions from is important. This gives you a huge opportunity for improvement.

Once you find out where the clicks and conversionsare coming from, you can increase your bid to get more clicks and conversions in that area and reduce the bid for the cities or regions from where you receive no conversion at all. You can access these reports from the ‘Locations’ tab. From there, view ‘location reports’and choose ‘What triggered your ad (geographic)’ or ‘Where your users were (user locations)’. You can also view additional information like cities, counties, regions, postal codes, etc.

Devices Report:

Since mobile searches are increasing, it has become more important to monitor mobile and desktop performance. Users behave differently ondifferent devices,so it is essential you review the performance according to these different behaviors as well. These can be tracked through the devices report, which shows the performance of your campaigns on desktop, tablet and mobile.

You can also adjust your bid for mobile devices. If you noticedyou are not performing well on mobile, you should increase your bid to a range that would allow you to be in the top 2 positions.Of course, this may cost you a bit more compared to desktop CPC due to less space and more competition.

Author Bio:

David Chapman is the Director of Sales and Marketing at Webrageous Studios, a PPC Management Company based out of Reno, Nevada. His expertise in PPC comes from managing PPC accounts with monthly budgets in the range of $30,000 – $100,000 with a focus on mobile marketing.

]]>http://ppc.org/5-adwords-reports-you-should-always-monitor/feed/0How Can Designers Improve User Experience?http://ppc.org/how-can-designers-improve-user-experiences/
http://ppc.org/how-can-designers-improve-user-experiences/#commentsWed, 07 Dec 2016 07:32:42 +0000http://ppc.org/?p=16091When web developers design and develop a website, they mainly design it for the large screen devices and lose insight on how it will look when a user browses the same website from their mobile device. Actually, when the user clicks links within the website via their mobile phones, navigating and reading become more difficult. Solving these problems is the biggest challenge for the web designers. Have you ever been frustrated by any mobile app’s poor performance and switched to any other app? It is because of the poor user experience. User interface design is more than just looks. A great UI can make apps straightforward as well as reduce confusions and user’s disappointment. What are User Experience? ‘User Experience’ is a term used to describe the overall experience and satisfaction a user while using any service or product. And User Experience Design (UXD) is the process of enhancing the ...

]]>When web developers design and develop a website, they mainly design it for the large screen devices and lose insight on how it will look when a user browses the same website from their mobile device. Actually, when the user clicks links within the website via their mobile phones, navigating and reading become more difficult. Solving these problems is the biggest challenge for the web designers.

Have you ever been frustrated by any mobile app’s poor performance and switched to any other app? It is because of the poor user experience. User interface design is more than just looks. A great UI can make apps straightforward as well as reduce confusions and user’s disappointment.

What are User Experience?

‘User Experience’ is a term used to describe the overall experience and satisfaction a user while using any service or product. And User Experience Design (UXD) is the process of enhancing the user experience by improving the accessibility, usability and interaction. If you want to learn various aspects of users experience design, we suggest you to visit kodematix.com.

So, here the post will help you by providing six tactics through which you can improve User Experiences (UX) of your mobile apps.

Stop using lengthy tours of features

A small hint for you – if you are planning to launch an app for touchscreen devices, make sure it is simple to use. If the app has hundreds of features and need a lengthy tour to get the users accustomed to all its features and functions, then it means you have included too many features in it. Rather than adding all the features in a single release, you can do it at multiple levels.

Review your user requests

You may at time feel tempted to make new releases when you are on a tight time line without trying to connect with the end users. What really happens is – the app development team receives the review data from the support team and they analyze it and then roll out new updates based on that data without even interacting with the end users. This can have disastrous consequence for the future growth of the app or the website for that matter.

You’ll come to know which features your users want and what their frustration points are from the review data. Right? Hold on for a second. Have you ever got your head around the fact that almost 99% of the users never really talk with the support team? Just think about it. If you are going to roll out updates based on the feedbacks of those remaining 1% users, you are basically ignoring the feedbacks of the silent majority. You cannot improve the app performance by focusing on the elite 1% and ignoring the 99%.

Even though you know what your users expect from you, you should still talk to them about the same.

Use the screen technology

Naturally, when people are spending a lot on mobile phones, they always want something unique and better. Enhancing the User Experience can be the way to match people’s expectations for what they paid you.

Stop delivering too much long set up wizards

This is the biggest problem that most of the users face. Some of the apps require too much set up wizards before end users can use those apps, which is definitely annoy for the new users. As a result some of those users will quit the installation process and switch to any other relevant app.

Stop with the notifications

Numerous notifications can annoy any individuals. In every two to three seconds, some apps or another is reminding you something that you don’t know or not even want to know. So it is better to keep your notifications to minimum.

No emotional connection between your users and brand

The main aim of a good UX designer is to ensure that the end users are not having any difficulties while using the product. As a user experience designer, your job is to go extra mile to ensure that the end users are loving and appreciating the product. By winning their love and trust, you will be able to connect with your targeted audience on a personal level.

Those users who feel emotionally connected to your brand will be happy to ignore the issues that they might come across while using your website or product. This will definitely have a position impact as far the conversion rate of your website is concerned.

Try to Brand YOURSELF

It sounds simple but actually not. Just know if you don’t take steps to brand yourself then your users will define your brand based on your interaction with them which may go very well or very bad. God knows…

Wrapping Up

By enhancing User Experiences (UX), you are on the right track on saving money in the long run. A good UX design is going to contribute positively to your business bottom-line. So have A Great Future!

]]>http://ppc.org/how-can-designers-improve-user-experiences/feed/0What Alternatives are there to Adsense in 2016?http://ppc.org/what-alternatives-are-there-to-adsense-in-2016/
http://ppc.org/what-alternatives-are-there-to-adsense-in-2016/#commentsTue, 06 Dec 2016 14:00:52 +0000http://ppc.org/?p=16077For the vast majority of websites out there, the most used way to generate revenue from content would be to use Google’s pay per click advertising program named Google Adsense. There is absolutely nothing wrong with using Google Adsense to monetise your content – after all, they are partnered with the most used PPC advertising program for advertisers: AdWords. Therefore, you can expect the CPC and CTR of your adverts to be very high since you have the widest pool of advertisers to bid on the advertising space for your website. However, you may think you could earn more with another program or feel Adsense is just not right for the type of website you own. With this in mind, here are some alternative programs to Adsense you could use to monetise your website with. Media.net Media.net is, pretty much, the next best PPC program out there you ...

]]>For the vast majority of websites out there, the most used way to generate revenue from content would be to use Google’s pay per click advertising program named Google Adsense. There is absolutely nothing wrong with using Google Adsense to monetise your content – after all, they are partnered with the most used PPC advertising program for advertisers: AdWords. Therefore, you can expect the CPC and CTR of your adverts to be very high since you have the widest pool of advertisers to bid on the advertising space for your website.

However, you may think you could earn more with another program or feel Adsense is just not right for the type of website you own. With this in mind, here are some alternative programs to Adsense you could use to monetise your website with.

Media.net

Media.net is, pretty much, the next best PPC program out there you can use. The PPC program relies on the Yahoo and Bing! advertising network to display contextual adverts on your website. However, the rules of where you can display adverts is not the same as Adsense, which potentially means you can place adverts in higher earning areas Google would not let you do so with Adsense. As well as this, you do get an actual person to contact and help you set up, integrate and run Media.net on your website which is something Google do not offer (I guess, because they do not need to)?

Infolinks

Infolinks relies on picking out words in your content and linking them to advertising landing pages contextually. What is great about Infolinks is that it can run alongside other advertising platforms without breaking rules, such as Adsense. Therefore, you are able to monetise even more areas on your website than before.

Is it an alternative to Adsense? Depending on your content and the user interface of your website, potentially.

Ezoic

Ezoic is a certified Adsense partner which uses many different advertising networks to monetise and test as many variations of advert sizes, locations and more to come up with the ‘best’ layout of adverts to make you the most amount of money. It sounds very promising and, after using them for 30 days, the only payment they request is in claiming the revenue of a linked advert at the bottom of your website. If the testing proves the user experience is better and you make more money, it’s a win-win situation. It’s not specifically an alternative to Adsense but it is a way to make more money with the PPC program

Ultimately, there are many advertising platforms to choose from. It really does depend on how much time you have as to whether you should try them out or not. For most people, Adsense will be the best way to earn the most. However, without trying the best alternatives, you will never truly know if it actually is.

]]>http://ppc.org/what-alternatives-are-there-to-adsense-in-2016/feed/08 Amazing Ways Dental SEO Marketing can help your Businesshttp://ppc.org/8-amazing-ways-dental-seo-marketing-can-help-your-business/
http://ppc.org/8-amazing-ways-dental-seo-marketing-can-help-your-business/#commentsTue, 06 Dec 2016 12:45:01 +0000http://ppc.org/?p=16055Written by Selina Jenkins Most patients today are finding, comparing, and booking appointments in dental clinics online. According to research by Google, 90% of U.S. internet users use search primarily to find local businesses. It is, therefore, important that you have a strong online presence. One way of doing this is optimizing your dental website for search engines (search engine optimization or SEO). So, how does your business directly benefit from dental SEO marketing? Increased Visibility SEO is all about improving your ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). Most people searching for a dental clinic do not go past the first SERP. According to a Study by SlingShot SEO titled “Google & Bing Study”, the first SERP in Google receives 70% of all click-through traffic. Increased Traffic The increased visibility leads to increased traffic into your site. Furthermore, a good SEO strategy will encourage people ...

Most patients today are finding, comparing, and booking appointments in dental clinics online. According to research by Google, 90% of U.S. internet users use search primarily to find local businesses. It is, therefore, important that you have a strong online presence. One way of doing this is optimizing your dental website for search engines (search engine optimization or SEO). So, how does your business directly benefit from dental SEO marketing?

Increased Visibility

SEO is all about improving your ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). Most people searching for a dental clinic do not go past the first SERP. According to a Study by SlingShot SEO titled “Google & Bing Study”, the first SERP in Google receives 70% of all click-through traffic.

Increased Traffic

The increased visibility leads to increased traffic into your site. Furthermore, a good SEO strategy will encourage people to spend more time on a website, which increases the chances of conversion. According to TMP/comScore, 82% of local searches end up in offline contact such as a visit, a purchase, or a phone call.

Competitive Advantage

Most visitors believe, albeit erroneously, those businesses that rank high are better. SEO helps your effectively compete with your bigger competitors because it is not the size of the business that determines ranking.

Greater Conversion Rates

One of the most important SEO tactics is the generation of quality keyword-optimized content. Quality content will bring you out as an expert in your field and this will lead to increased conversion rates. Other useful information such as customer reviews will also encourage conversion. According to TMP/comScore, 61% of local searches end up in a purchase.

Cost Effective Marketing

SEO is a cost effective marketing technique – much cheaper than other online marketing options like PPC. Although an SEO expert greatly helps, some of the tasks such as link building and content creation can be done in-house without much expertise. It will increase sales without increasing marketing costs proportionately, but you have to be patient to realize the full benefits.

Leveraging Social Sharing

If you are engaged in social media, SEO will play a critical role since content shared by users on social channels are directly related to such SEO parameters as Meta descriptions and Title tags. This is why posts and stories shared by your social media community are visible. SEO will help you control what people read, think and do on social media channels.

Brand Building

Another way how dental SEO marketing can help your business is in branding. Building a strong brand in the competitive dental field is complex, chaotic, and costly. SEO helps your branding campaign since increased traffic means more people will see your site and are likely to come back and also tell their friends. SEO also helps in brand building since quality content will build trust and credibility.

Targeted Traffic

SEO tactics like link building and local SEO help bring targeted traffic to your site. With SEO, you will be able to target the right demographic through the content displayed, attract the right geographical area through location-based long-tail keywords, address your audience’s problems and concerns, and build trust. This increases conversion rates.

You should combine SEO with other online marketing methods like PPC and Email marketing for the best results. Insist on White Hat SEO tactics to avoid Google penalties, including de-indexing of your site.

]]>http://ppc.org/8-amazing-ways-dental-seo-marketing-can-help-your-business/feed/04 Things to Know When Creating High Conversion PPC Landing Pageshttp://ppc.org/4-things-to-know-when-creating-high-conversion-ppc-landing-pages/
http://ppc.org/4-things-to-know-when-creating-high-conversion-ppc-landing-pages/#commentsMon, 05 Dec 2016 12:45:38 +0000http://ppc.org/?p=16052Written by Shahzad Saeed If you’re focused on conversion, you’ll need to ensure that your landing page is efficient in turning visitors into customers. Undoubtedly, the landing pages can make or break your business. Just as leaky buckets can’t hold water, poor landing pages can’t drive in conversions before the loopholes are fixed. Before spending advertising budget, you’ll need to ensure that the landing page is optimized for conversion in order to bring in results. Or else, you’ll be losing lots of money on the table. In this post, I’ll explain a few things you need to know before creating a high conversion landing page for your next PPC campaign. Landing pages vs. microsite- Which one is appropriate? If your product is too difficult to explain, chances are you’ll need a long landing page with lots of copy on it for explaining your product. While there is nothing wrong with using ...

If you’re focused on conversion, you’ll need to ensure that your landing page is efficient in turning visitors into customers. Undoubtedly, the landing pages can make or break your business.

Just as leaky buckets can’t hold water, poor landing pages can’t drive in conversions before the loopholes are fixed. Before spending advertising budget, you’ll need to ensure that the landing page is optimized for conversion in order to bring in results. Or else, you’ll be losing lots of money on the table.

In this post, I’ll explain a few things you need to know before creating a high conversion landing page for your next PPC campaign.

Landing pages vs. microsite- Which one is appropriate?

If your product is too difficult to explain, chances are you’ll need a long landing page with lots of copy on it for explaining your product.

While there is nothing wrong with using a long sales page, chances are it might annoy some of your customers who are not interested in reading it all.

If you’re using a long sales page for your PPC campaign, make sure that it has following components for high conversion.

Install scroll map: Installing scroll map tells you whether your users are scrolling down till the end. This also helps you to decide the optimal placement of your call-to-action buttons.

Use videos: Adding an explainer video is another great tactic to convey the message of your landing page. Crazy Egg has found a rise in conversion by 64% when they added an explainer video to their landing page.

With that said, if you’re not fond of using a long sales page for your PPC campaign, a great strategy is to use a microsite instead. As the name indicates, it is a smaller version of your website created specifically for a purpose such as an advertising campaign.

The best thing about using a microsite is that it split long pages into several short pages, so that it doesn’t annoy your potential customers. Moreover, because it is built specifically for attracting targeted customers through advertising, you’ll experience higher conversion rate than that of your website which is built for the general audience.

There are lots of website builders out there that let you create instant microsites without coding. All you need to do is to compare different choices and pick the right one that suits your needs.

CTA button placement

“Always place your CTA button above-the-fold” – we have all heard this advice lots of times.

It is true that above-the-fold placement of your CTA button is a sure-fire method to get a lot of eyeballs on it. Many studies reveal that your visitors will be spending 80% of their time looking at things above-the-fold, so this tactic totally makes sense.

However, while above-the-fold placement can be a good strategy in most cases, the reality is it is not a one-size-fits-for-all solution for every landing page.

Usually, a customer clicks on a CTA button only if they have a desire to buy your product. Particularly, if your product is too hard to explain, you might want to follow AIDA concept for CTA button placement.

AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. This means before you entice your prospects to take the desired action such as purchasing your product or subscribing to your list, you’ll need to let them know about your product and create an interest in your product.

Unless your prospects are interested in your products, you’re not going to making any sales.

For example, Marketing Experiments has found a 20% increase in conversion rate when they repositioned the CTA button from top to bottom of the page.

Collect emails of your first time visitors

Did you know that 95% of your website visitors will never return once they left your website?

In fact, most of your potential prospects are not in the buying phase when they just land on your website. They’ll need to visit your website 3-4 times before making their first purchase.

So if you’re not capturing emails of your potential customers, most likely you’re making a big mistake. Capturing email address allows you to send them customized email and create a long lasting relationship with them.

If you’re driving first-time visitors to your landing page, it is always better to collect emails, nurture them properly before asking them to purchase your product directly.

When creating an email list, make sure to segment your list into distinct groups based on demographics such as geographic location and on-site behavior etc, so you can send personalized emails to each group.

Comparing with untargeted emails, personalized emails are proven to bring in more conversion.

Trust factor influences purchasing decision

No matter how hard you try, there remains some friction that resists your potential customers to make a purchase from your landing page.

While the reasons for the friction can be many, one of the biggest reasons is the lack of trust. If you’re suspecting a lack of trust factor on your landing page, below are a few ways you can foster trust.

Tell them the information is safe: If you’re growing an email list, tell them you won’t spam them and won’t sell their emails.

SSL certificate: Adding SSL certificate to your website tells your visitors that your website is trustworthy. This creates a perception that sensitive info like credit card details is safe on your website, leading to making a purchase from your landing page.

Testimonials: Show what your customers are talking about your product or services. Make sure you place the testimonials nearer to CTA button.

Reassurance copy: Reassurance copy is a ‘click trigger’ that entices visitors to click on your button. For example, if yours is an ecommerce store, adding the privacy policy or telling them the ‘shipping is free’ can build trust on you and entice them to purchase from your store.

Author bio: Shahzad Saeed specializes in content marketing for startups and small businesses. He writes on CRO, ecommerce, marketing and PPC. You can follow him on Twitter @shahzadsaeed.

]]>http://ppc.org/4-things-to-know-when-creating-high-conversion-ppc-landing-pages/feed/0Guide to Create Cross Channel Marketing Strategieshttp://ppc.org/guide-to-create-cross-channel-marketing-strategies/
http://ppc.org/guide-to-create-cross-channel-marketing-strategies/#commentsSun, 04 Dec 2016 05:18:13 +0000http://ppc.org/?p=16073Marketing is the backbone of any business operation running worldwide. Whether it is the online business or the offline operations, marketing and its related strategies play a key role in it. In order to achieve a successful operation and running business, certain strategy building process and procedures must be kept in mind. Let’s go through a planned step by step process following for an effectual marketing strategy building process. Step 1: Set the goal GOAL – is known to be the ultimate target one plans to reach after following a process. It is thus, very important to decide the final target goal that needs to be achieved. Prior to implementation of a cross-channel campaign, discuss and brainstorm on the target to be set like- increase engagement rates, higher retention rates, cost reduction, increasing the positive feedback etc. Step 2: Understanding the customers and their buying cycle The customers are the ...

In order to achieve a successful operation and running business, certain strategy building process and procedures must be kept in mind. Let’s go through a planned step by step process following for an effectual marketing strategy building process.

Step 1: Set the goal

GOAL – is known to be the ultimate target one plans to reach after following a process. It is thus, very important to decide the final target goal that needs to be achieved. Prior to implementation of a cross-channel campaign, discuss and brainstorm on the target to be set like- increase engagement rates, higher retention rates, cost reduction, increasing the positive feedback etc.

Step 2: Understanding the customers and their buying cycle

The customers are the king for any of the business operation running in the market. Thus a thorough review and understanding about them is necessary. Collect actual and necessary customer information relating to the factors like- tastes, preferences, and demographics, past purchasing history, wish-lists and other related ones. Higher information built will acknowledge higher customer communication. This will finally help in understanding their buying cycle and further make a decision on the strategy part as well.

Step 3: Marketing channels analysis

Further moving ahead, marketing channels tend to be focused then after, as they are the routes to reach and retain the customers. This step follows a hardcore review, analysis and understanding about the distribution channels being used by the consumers. This review on the internal analytics will help you understand the insight relating to the consumers usage of various channels for interaction with the brand. Bingo! This is the time when you can decide on the methods to launch your campaign for various channels, at a time.

Step 4: Implement cross-channel campaigns

As you have decided on the campaigning and marketing channels analysis, it’s high time to implement the campaigns in real time across these channels. Also, keep in mind that this process too needs a careful examination and analysis of the customers on the basis of the various stages of their purchasing cycle. Understand the ping and hit the bull’s eye with the right communication at the right time persuading them to make a buy. One can use communication sources like-newsletters, weekly blog posts, product demos, e-mailers and mobile campaigns, as per the suitability factor to build and retain a hardcore loyal customer.

Step 5: Track the process and progress

Nothing in the world can be measured or judged without the right tracking process. Thus, this step is a vital one which focuses on setting up a tracking process either through CMS (content management system) or a cross-channel marketing platform; or any other manual process that is capable enough for information collection and storage at various consumer touch-points, effectively and efficiently. You can use Cross Channel Marketing tool to track the progress of the campaign.

Step 6: Evaluation of the collected data

Using a CMS or any other auto-update database software can ease this step of data management. This step basically follows the trend of data evaluation by the marketers at various steps, including the management and track updates of the campaign as well. In case of manual works other tracking technology is needed for channel analytics review like- organic search, referral, website, social media, mobile, etc. on a periodic basis. on a timely basis and observe any change in results.

Step 7: Process Review, revision & reiteration

Once you trail through these steps all you got to do is just keep a rack on the success achievement of the campaign or marketing strategy workability standards. Review, revise and reiterate the process along with any scrutiny needed for a smooth running process.

Following these seven steps it’s very well easy to create and implement an ongoing functionally operative cross channel marketing strategy.

]]>http://ppc.org/guide-to-create-cross-channel-marketing-strategies/feed/0Plus500 – Analyse A Real PPC Campaignhttp://ppc.org/plus500-analyse-a-real-ppc-campaign/
http://ppc.org/plus500-analyse-a-real-ppc-campaign/#commentsThu, 01 Dec 2016 14:00:14 +0000http://ppc.org/?p=16066The last PPC campaign I analysed in the ‘Analyse A Real PPC Campaign series was from Pines and Needles, who had a great PPC campaign on the whole. Their search advert used great ad extensions for what Pines and Needles were promoting and the landing page was a brilliant example of a click through landing page that had the aim to split the traffic into two more specific areas of the website. In this article, I will be looking at a PPC campaign from a company offering the web user a service to buy and sell stocks and shares. Therefore, without further ado, here is an analysis of a PPC campaign from Plus500. To view Plus500’s PPC search advert, I had to type into Google search UK, ‘buy stocks and shares': From checking the first pages of search results, it is apparent that Plus500 have this PPC campaign in ...

]]>The last PPC campaign I analysed in the ‘Analyse A Real PPC Campaign series was from Pines and Needles, who had a great PPC campaign on the whole. Their search advert used great ad extensions for what Pines and Needles were promoting and the landing page was a brilliant example of a click through landing page that had the aim to split the traffic into two more specific areas of the website. In this article, I will be looking at a PPC campaign from a company offering the web user a service to buy and sell stocks and shares. Therefore, without further ado, here is an analysis of a PPC campaign from Plus500.

To view Plus500’s PPC search advert, I had to type into Google search UK, ‘buy stocks and shares':From checking the first pages of search results, it is apparent that Plus500 have this PPC campaign in order to gain traffic for such a crucial keyword search phrase that they do not rank highly for organically. Unfortunately for them, the competition for such a search phrase is also very high, which will likely mean the CPC that Plus500 had to adopt in order to get top spot would have been expensive for this sector.

Looking at the advert itself, the advert is all about the call to actions in the title and then the USPs of Plus500 in the description. Unlike other campaigns I have analysed in the past, Plus500 have not used their brand name as a selling point to attract web users. Instead, they have gone the more contextual route, completely addressing what the web user searched for. This will help Plus500’s advert in getting a high click through rate: especially through the use of two contextual call to actions for the title.

After clicking on the above advert, I came to the following landing page:

It is clear front the contents of this landing page that this is, in fact, a click through landing page. With this in mind, this landing page has both pros and cons associated to it:

It is good that Plus500 have a navigation menu. However, it is not floating or expands on hovering, limiting the usability of it. As well as this, the links chosen are not the most helpful for web users first getting into buying and selling stocks.

The use of a slideshow behind the navigation menu will attract the web user’s attention, enabling Plus500 to show off a few of the reasons why the web user should buy and sell stocks with them over competitors. Slideshows are good, for this reason, at providing information on landing pages without taking up too much area.

The only problem with this landing page is with the actual button Plus500 want the web users to click onto. For me, it is too small and not in a nice location to get a high CTR. Therefore, if I was to optimise this landing page, it would be to either stick the button more centrally, higher up the page and make it a little larger.

]]>http://ppc.org/plus500-analyse-a-real-ppc-campaign/feed/0Google Potentially Introducing Image Site Link Extensionshttp://ppc.org/google-potentially-introducing-image-site-link-extensions/
http://ppc.org/google-potentially-introducing-image-site-link-extensions/#commentsWed, 30 Nov 2016 14:00:23 +0000http://ppc.org/?p=16062We all know that Google are at the forefront of innovation: especially in pay per click advertising. For this reason, it should not come as a surprise to know that Google are experimenting on site link extensions, hoping that the inclusion of images for each site link extension will improve the performance of the ad extension. Obviously, the results produced from Google experimenting will provide quantifiable results as to whether the images work or not. But, before the results are in, what impact could images in site link extensions have to PPC? #1 Number of Adverts Listed to Change? My first worry that comes with image ad extensions is the increase in vertical space that they create. If every advert had image ad extensions, the web user would have to scroll quite a few times to reach the top of organic search results, which Google will not want. Therefore, ...

]]>We all know that Google are at the forefront of innovation: especially in pay per click advertising. For this reason, it should not come as a surprise to know that Google are experimenting on site link extensions, hoping that the inclusion of images for each site link extension will improve the performance of the ad extension. Obviously, the results produced from Google experimenting will provide quantifiable results as to whether the images work or not. But, before the results are in, what impact could images in site link extensions have to PPC?

#1 Number of Adverts Listed to Change?

My first worry that comes with image ad extensions is the increase in vertical space that they create. If every advert had image ad extensions, the web user would have to scroll quite a few times to reach the top of organic search results, which Google will not want. Therefore, how many adverts at one time can show the image ad extension?

My theory would be to only allow the top advert to be able to show image ad extensions. This way, it will give web users more reason to bid a higher CPC to gain top spot:

The image ad extension could potentially improve the performance of the advert.

The real estate space of the advert increases dramatically, increasing the exposure of the advert (which would result likely in a higher click through rate).

From doing this could potentially increase the CPC for every targeted sector in PPC if the difference between 1st and 2nd spots are more ‘black and white’ and less ‘grey’.

#2 What Images Will Show?

Another problem I have with the image ad extension is whether Google will moderate the images that are allowed to be shown on the advert or whether they will be automatically selected based on the contents of the web page the specific site link is linking to.

With each of these there are problems associated to them, though:

If the images are chosen by the advertiser, the images that are chosen might not always be images that represent the site link the best. As well as this, it will take time for Google employees to moderate every image.

If the images are automatically chosen, they may not always be images that best represent the site link. For example, Google may have to choose between two images and accidentally choose the image not as applicable to the site link from the web page.

Ultimately, I think it will be something that will happen to PPC – the question is whether it will be sooner or later. Either way, the way in which Google implements image site links into their PPC advertising program can make or break the program. For this reason, it is crucial to AdWords that the image ad extensions are used correctly and appropriately.